Donor Acquisition and Retention

For effective fundraising, you should focus on both the acquisition of new donors and the retention of your existing supporters. The real win of acquisition is when those new donors stick around for the long-term as loyal supporters.

Acquired donors are your relatively new supporters who gave their first gift during the current year. You can analyze donor acquisition in terms of the past 12 months or the current fiscal year.

  • To analyze constituents who gave their first gift within the past 12 months, use the rolling donor lifecycle. For more information, see Donor Lifecycle Analysis.

  • To analyze constituents who gave a gift of any type for the first time during the current fiscal year, use the Acquisition metrics in Analysis, Fundraising dashboards. For more information, see Donor Acquisition Analysis.

Tip: Sometimes old can be new again. Treat donors who give after more than five years since their previous gift as newly acquired.

Now that you have these donors' attention, promptly recognize their generosity with personalized thank you letters, phone calls, or welcome packages to help convert them to regular givers.

After you acquire a donor, retain them as loyal supporters who give year-over-year for the long term. You can analyze donor retention in terms of the past 12 months or the current fiscal year.

  • To analyze constituents who gave within the past 12 months and less than 15 months since their previous gift, use the donor lifecycle. For more information, see Donor Lifecycle Analysis.

  • To analyze constituents who gave during both the current and previous fiscal years, use the Retention metrics in Analysis, Fundraising dashboards. For more information, see Donor Retention Analysis.

To keep these donors engaged, assign them to fundraisers who can provide regular interaction and chances for involvement.

Through your appeals and donor retention efforts, you may — hopefully! — recapture lapsed supporters who haven't given in over a year.

  • To analyze constituents who gave within the past 12 months, after more than 15 months since their previous gift, use the donor lifecycle. For more information, see Donor Lifecycle Analysis.

  • To analyze constituents who — within the past five years — gave during the current fiscal year, after more than 15 months since their previous gift, use the Recapture metrics in Analysis, Fundraising dashboards. For more information, see Donor Recapture Analysis.

To help prevent a relapse, show your appreciation with a personalized hand-written thank you note and ask for details — through a friendly inquiry or short survey — about how to improve engagement.

For suggestions on how to recapture lapsed or lost donors, see Donor Attrition.

Tip: To help gauge supporter engagement, you can quickly analyze your donor attrition, acquisition, and retention under Overview in Fundraising, Analyze or Reporting. For more information, see Donor Lifecycle Analysis.

To help focus on both the acquisition and retention of donors, follow these best practices.

To help market your mission to prospects, grab their attention with strong imagery that supports why they should give and promotes your organization's brand. Simplify your story and cut out any noise that could overwhelm prospective donors. To ease giving, include a clear call to action that enables donors to show their support — such as a prominent Donate now! button on your website — and provide suggested gift amounts of increasing giving levels.

To encourage giving from prospective and engaged donors alike, provide tangible evidence of the impact of their generosity. Include a concrete description of how gifts help your cause on your donation page, and promote the work your organization does through email newsletters, direct marketing, and a presence online and in social media.

Tip: For suggestions on how to promote your mission in social media such as Facebook and Twitter, see Social Media Best Practices.

Timing is critical to help secure a second gift from acquired donors and convert them to loyal supporters. We recommend you add gifts to the database as soon as you get them and thank first-time donors within 24 hours with an acknowledgement and personal phone call. Consider a welcome package to introduce acquired donors to your organization and its mission.